If you're Bryan Adams, for instance, and you sell millions of records over three decades, get nominated for three Oscars, become a social activist and respected photographer with Queen Elizabeth as a subject, you can expect to be largely ignored by the local media.
If you're Celine Dion, and you sell more records than just about any other female singer alive, and are the most lucrative act to hit the Vegas strip since the Rat Pack, and have one of the most glorious voices on the planet, you can expect to be be ridiculed by artistic purists.
And if you're Nickelback, whose trophies could fill a semi-trailer and whose song How You Remind Me received more airplay than any other single in 2002, you can expect to be compared to an overrated garage band.
They may be three of the most successful Canadian musical acts, ever, in the world -- selling more than 250 million records combined -- but they sure can't get no respect at home.
Why? She goes on to posit:
One theory is that success, whether intentioned or accidental, carries the aura of the crass, as if one has sold his soul or trampled babies to achieve all that unseemly fame and fortune.
And we're Canadian, don't forget, inhabitants of a country that makes no waves, draws no attention and prefers quiet achievement over a raving fan club.
...
... they're all just too successful, too radio-friendly, too middle-class and mainstream for our prissy colonial comfort.
Just FYI, Ms. Fralic, that's probably not the main reason.
